[IC] You're (Both) New to This Aren't You?

[DeadlyEssence]

There was no doubt about it. She was late again. She sighed and rolled her eyes, at this point she had very few options. She could run to class, she could finish walking there and pretend she wasn't late and that everyone else was early, pretend she didn't know the scheduled class time was ten minutes ago, or she could steal the unlocked bike on the rack back there. She stopped. She could steal the bike on the rack back there. Besides, it wasn't really stealing - she would most definitely return it, eventually- after class. She squinted her eyes, and back-tracked. She had almost gotten to the bike when some guy with black spiked hair, eyeliner, black gloves and an all black attire grabbed the bike. He looked around and then reached in his back pack - apparently he had forgotten to lock it and finding his lock still in his pack was proof. He shook his head - probably telling himself he was stupid and then left with Felixia's only viable option at getting to class relatively on time. Now, she was certain she'd be ten minutes late.

Felixia threw her hands into her jacket pockets and shook her head -then she remembered today was her exam. That was the whole reason she even bothered getting up at 8am after going to that bar with her friends last night. She made a fist and pulled her hand out of her pocket to hit herself on the forehead- softly. She felt stupid. Then, she began to jog/run to class. Which was very uncomfortable, her back-pack bounced around shamelessly as she ran, and her phone inched it's way out of her jacket pocket. She reached down to make sure it was still secure when she felt it fall. Crap. She stopped her run just in time to kick her phone. Instinctively she reached out for it knowing well that she was not going to catch it.

Then, her phone stopped. It was in the midst of landing on the ground further ahead of her when it just stopped moving- in mid air just an inch from the ground. After a few seconds it fell flat onto the ground. Felixia looked at the phone before reluctantly bending down and picking it up. She inspected it, there were no scratches. What the? Ugh. Whatever. This time she kept her phone in her hand as she ran. It took her a few minutes to make to to class, but when she walked in and the door closed behind her she say a whole classroom full of people turn to look at the girl in grey skinny jeans, a dark blue baggy t-shirt barely visible under a black jacket. She pulled the jacket closed and zipped it up slightly. Being late was always so dang awkward.

Papers were still being passed out. Felixia maneuvered through the rows of people to an empty seat, clutching her purple book bag to her in an attempt to keep from hitting anyone with it. She set it beside her when she sat down and reached in to grab a pencil. It was a mindless action but she felt the pencil make contact with her skin sooner than expected. She ignored it, she had too much to drink last night- that was obvious. She set it down on the desk in front of her.

She ran her fingers through her brown hair, the natural highlights peeked through, she took a deep breath, maybe the professor hadn't noticed she was late. She pulled her phone out, for a second her hazel eyes reflected back to her in the screen until she pushed the power button and the screen lit up. She powered it off just in case and slipped it into her book bag. She hadn't studied but she felt confident.

[Byzantine]

Narissa shuffled into the classroom with blue foam slippers, fuzzy leopard print pajama bottoms, and a black and white wind-breaker zipped right up to the top. It was supposed to be Spring, but the weather seemed to be going through it's rebellious punk phase. She nursed a large cup of iced coffee from the small cafe in the student union. The class was only half full so far. Dark bags hung under her eyes from more than one night of not getting enough sleep, but that was not uncommon among many of the students showing up later to the class. However, some students were clearly morning people. Smiling, laughing, chatting with friends, clear alert eyes. 'Fuckers...' She grumbled in her thoughts.

She made her way to a few familiar faces in the middle of the rows, sat down, and pulled out a couple pencils and a pen from her jacket pocket. She sat back her chair, leaning it back on two legs until it's back rested on the desk behind it. This was a comfortable position to take a nap, and that's exactly what she planned to try. Sleep had been extremely difficult for her lately; Her dreams were so vivid they gave her headaches. Even as she shut her eyes, she couldn't help imagining a bird's eye view of the classroom. She relaxed into vaguely watching what her imagination or subconscious was deciding to give her, not really paying too much attention to anyone or what they were doing. However, the teacher started passing out papers in her dream, and the stack was passed from student to student along each row until it arrived at the form with leopard print pants laying back in her chair. The guy attempting to give it to the girl tapped her knee with the stack.

Narissa jumped slightly as something hit her knee, the chair lurching forward back onto all it's legs. Her vision was flooded with bright light for a few seconds before things focused and she was able to pick out details again. The guy next to her held the stack of papers out for her, an expression of sympathy on his face for the girl, who obviously needed one, just trying to get a small nap in. She took the stack and passed it along, and kept one of the stapled packets for herself. Any thought of what just happened slipped away as she started leafing through the pack of papers, each page draining the life straight out of her with the amount of questions each one held. The teacher started going through instructions for during and after the exam was done, when the classroom door opened quietly, and closed with a bang as pretty much all the doors on the campus did.

'Ughhh skinny jeans, how does anyone like something that tight...' She groaned in her mind as soon as she saw the poor late girl standing there. But that's where her interest ended, replaced by a mention of the last episode of Lucifer from her class acquaintances she sat with.

"Hey didn't I say before it was cause of her? I was fucking right," She jumped into the conversation, pulling her chair forward as the late girl scooted along the row. Her bag brushed the back of Narissa's head and pulled a lock of the long reddish brown hairs out of place. She grimaced a moment, smoothed it back down, then pulled the whole mane over her shoulder on second thought.

"...And remember, this counts for fifty percent of your grade, so take your time and don't bullshit your answers. 'Salad' is not an acceptable answer, Mr. Dodson," The teacher finished up his instructional lecture, and drew a chuckle from the students. "You have two hours. You may begin."

[DeadlyEssence]

Once she flipped through the pages of the exam she almost panicked. She hadn't studied, but usually that wasn't a problem, this time it seemed the questions were harder. They were specifically the things that hadn't stuck out in her mind. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. She could do it, she just needed to think and remember, she needed to focus. She knew the information was in there somewhere.

Felixia shook her head and looked at the first question, it wasn't hard. She marked “A” and moved to the next question. She had gotten halfway through the exam when she realized she knew nothing about this portion. She closed her eyes and she focused, took a breath, there was no way she didn't know the answers. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the man sitting next to her had just gotten to the section, and then she realized what the answers were. Like she knew them subconsciously. She began filling in the short responses and focused on the string of answers. Some it them she knew before even reading the question. Then she saw the guy stop, and she hesitated. She looked at the question but nothing came to mind. She gave a nervous laugh. Something was wrong with her.

With her pencil she began filling in answers, she wasn't cheating, but her pattern was matching the guy next to her and she didn't want to be accused. Once he began answering she could hear the answers again. She closed her eyes. Whats happening? She quickly filled in the rest of the answers, she didn't bother to read them, just marked down random things and stood up. She could hear various things as she passed by other students. She whispered sorry as she quickly made her way through the crowded aisle. When she reached the girl with reddish hair and a black and white windbreaker she felt her head pulsate. There was a nagging sensation that lingered as she passed – it was different. She couldn't put a finger on it.

She turned the paper in at the front showing her ID. It was an old picture of her, but the professor nodded and took her test. She put her palm to her head as she walked out. She didn't bother to close the door slowly behind her, any attempt at quieting the sound of the doors was always in vain, there would always be an obnoxiously loud click even if the whole thing didn't bang closed.

Felixia had taken the exit to the main hallway rather than the outside of the building. She wanted to sit in the hallway it was quieter, inside her head at least. She leaned against the white brick wall before sliding down and making herself comfortable. She was either still drunk, or there was something seriously wrong with her. She put her head back against the wall for a few minutes before taking the pencil she had used during the test out of her bag. She set it down on the white and black tile in front of her. She stared at it. Occasionally feet would shuffle passed her and she at first became very self-conscious, being some random person staring at a pencil will sitting on the ground in a hallway outside of a classroom taking an exam. Then she really thought about it, and as more people passed she stopped caring, it was college after-all. People did weirder things.

As Felixia let out a sigh she saw the pencil move. Her heart stopped. Then she laughed – she had sighed air could move objects too. She reached for the pencil but it slid away, she tried again but it moved to the other side of the hallway. “Great. Now I'm haunted.” she whispered to herself. It made perfect sense after-all, then she questioned why ghosts would give her test answers, and she squinted her eyes in frustration at the pencil. “Stupid pencil.” She got up to retrieve it, but it slowly moved across the floor back to her, it stopped when she took her eyes off of it. She was definitely still drunk, she laughed to herself, and looked around. There was no one sitting around waiting for another class, and no witnesses as to what just happened. When she picked up the pencil that had stopped at arm's reach she heard the door to the classroom shut. Others were finishing up their exams too, at least he ones who didn't Christmas tree the last portion of it.

[Byzantine]

Narissa opened the test booklet's first couple title and information pages to where the test actually begun, not bothering with the 'demo' section that made sure you knew exactly how to fill in the bubble. She almost immediately sunk down on the desk, head resting on her outstretched arm that she bent back to almost touch her own shoulder. That kept her head up just enough to be able to read without her exhausted eyes complaining of having to focus at an odd angle. She was a pro at everything slouching and comfort related in class.

To say she didn't study for this implied she studied at all. Every question for the first half an hour was met with real-time logic, process of elimination, or 'when in doubt, pick C'. After a while in her comfortable position, her blinks turned into long blinks. Long blinks turned into just plain passing out. Or it would've been nice if were actually passing out.

Her view drifted from her like a camera on a crane like they use for TV and movies, slowly rotating and lifting to sweep across the rows of desks and take it all in. She recognized someone, and as soon as she picked them out, her vision shifted to them. First on their face, then turned and moved to over their shoulder. She saw their test paper, and remembered the number of one of the questions she said 'fuck it' on. They answered D. She answered C.

She got an idea. She turned her view and looked for that one smart kid she knew. Now she was purposefully controlling this vision. She started remembering answers from her visions in small groups, waking up, writing them down, and drifting off again. This was crazy. She was getting answers from her dreams. However, when she double checked some of them that she could answer surely, they were right...

Half an hour later, Narissa bubbled in the last answer. She was done, but so was also So Done. Her head pounded with a killer headache on top of a growing feeling of nausea. She nearly slammed the question book shut, got up, stuffed her pencils and things in her sweatpants pockets, and took the finished test to the teacher's desk. She pulled out her ID on a retractable string and showed it with her test paper. And that was it.

She was out the door. She stood in the hall a moment, oblivious to everything around her as she rubbed her face and her temples. She turned and headed down the hall, nearly tripping over a girl sitting on the floor for some reason. She didn't care at this point why. Her condition was mounting to a peak.

She needed to go to the clinic.

[DeadlyEssence]

Felixia had just put the pencil in her jacket pocket when someone stepped on her- or kicked her really, but it wasn't on purpose Felixia could tell because they stumbled, tripping over her. Instinctively, Felixia half stood up and reached out to catch the girl who had tripped, regardless of whether or not she was going to manage to catch herself, Felixia's hand touched the other girl's momentarily and Felixia felt the same head ache that she had gotten when passing the girl with the white and black wind-breaker. But the pain didn't go away when she pulled her hand away.

When Felixia actually looked, and her brain started processing information again, it was the girl with the fuzzy leopard print pajama bottoms, and of course the white and black wind breaker - the same girl that had caused her head to pound earlier. Felixia wanted to apologize for being in the way but she was also annoyed at being tripped over, as silly as that was.

Though awkward, Fela remained in her half-standing position. "What's wrong with you?" Felixia asked as she brought her right palm to her temple. The question came out wrong - "I mean." Felixia hesitated, "Not like that.." She really didn't know what she was asking. Why the pounding started when she touched the girl? Why the girl made her head hurt so much? Why the girl tripped over her? Obviously from the headache she must not have been paying much attention to the hallway- then Felixia paused, she knew it wasn't her own headache, she knew it was the girl's. "Why does your head hurt?" she asked, then bit her tongue. "I mean, like why, does your head hurt? It looks like you've got a headache.." All this talking and struggling was making Felixia's head hurt more, but she wasn't sure if it was her own internal conflict of the girl's headache was worsening, she was sure it was the first of the two.

People were stopping to look and she could hear them, their voices or what she thought was their voices. She started to feel nauseous it was too much to take at this point. She wanted to tell everyone to shut up and stop talking and to stop talking so loud and that some of them had a headache but the embarrassment that came over her from opening her mouth before made her keep her mouth shut this time.

[Byzantine]

As Narissa tripped, someone grabbed her hand, but let go immediately. It didn't matter, she was heading for the trash bin. She heaved into the opening in the decorative case around it. People leaving the test and people passing by stopped to look at the scene of the two girls having mental breakdowns, or a horrible shared case of food poisoning. However, most people actually had somewhere to be, and didn't stay long. A few took pictures, as it was so easy to do with camera phones these days.

Narissa saw all of this, with her head in the trash can. It was happening again, but she could feel her eyes open. She wasn't sleeping. This wasn't a dream.

Someone took hold of the distressed girls, helped them to their feet, and started guiding them along. Narissa's detached vision was getting too erratic, almost 'glitching out'. She screwed her eyes shut and forced herself to concentrate. Her real vision returned to her, and she recognized the person guiding her along as that one campus security guard that drove around on the golf-cart too damn fast all the time. He was talking into his radio.

"...got a couple of students having episodes, taking em to the medical wing," She caught the end of his transmission. The muffled buzzing reply was too hard to catch. "Yeah, start checking the water-fountains just in case." The water fountains? Oh there was that thing she heard about, a couple years ago someone put LSD dots in the nozzles. Did she drink from a water fountain today...? She couldn't remember...

[DeadlyEssence]

An officer came to her and pulled her up. "Hey!" She protested as she was lifted without her consent. Haphazardly she reached down to grab her bag. She didn't try to fight the security guard anymore as he led her forward. "I don't need to go there. I need to go back to my apartment." She protested but stopped herself from speaking anymore it was causing a relay in her mind and it was just too much to take.

"Yeah, start checking the water-fountains just in case." There was that thing a couple years ago where students were having LSD episodes. It was from the water-fountains? No.. No. Felixia didn't recall having drunk out of the fou- nevermind. Her water bottle was filled with water from the fountain yesterday. She had sipped on it during her exam, but hadn't drank any of it before then. She started chuckling to herself. That would explain a lot.

As the officer kept in contact with her she could hear him talking about how stupid it was for students to drug other students like that. How it was possible these two were just stupid enough to do it on their own. How cynical. "I'm not- " Felixia started but then cut herself off it was useless. She was just going to shut up and go to the nurse. She tried to keep her eyes closed as much as possible as she was led to the health center, medical wing - as the guards called it. She recognized a few students on her way there, they would be texting her soon, asking what was going. Felixia was never one to be apart of the action.

Her and the other girl were sat down in a couple of chairs in the lobby and the guard walked up to the clerk and began telling her what happened. She was a hefty lady, with orange hair pulled back in a bun. She had a few freckles across her face and she smiled a toothy smile when she glanced at the girls. Felixia had managed to never set foot in this office, she guessed there was a first for everything, but she wasn't sure what to think of the clerk, who might have been the nurse, she wasn't sure.

"Just wait one moment and we'll see you." The lady said as she glanced around the officer.

"Thanks Jenny" the officer said as he glanced back at the two students.